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Monday, June 7, 2010

Video Tutorial: Stripping with Simple Green!

Well, it seems the technical problems with Blogger have calmed down for now and it is time to post! I have a quick Video Tutorial for you today. This one is a simple walkthrough on stripping minis with Simple Green.

I didn't make this with the experts in mind, but rather for those folks who are newer to the hobby or who have never had to strip minis before.

It really is pretty simple. Take some tupperware, put the mini in the tupperware, pour the Simple Green. Let it sit for 24 hours. Take it out and scrub the mini off with a toothbrush and then rinse all the Simple Green off. It works well on metal, doesn't melt plastic (though it also doesn't strip it very well), and the best part is that it is environmentally friendly (No BP here!).

Anyway, hopefully this helps out a few folks. Feedback is welcome as always! Thanks for watching - OST.

Well, to be 100% clear, if you are just trying to strip a plastic model, this isn't going to do it. In fact, not much will help that, but if the model you are stripping has a plastic head or arm or has plastic parts you want preserved, then this will work fine for you and it will, with tons of scrubbing get SOME of the paint off the plstic parts - just don't expect it to clean up your tau battle suits that you screwed up back in the day (been there, done that).

Its pretty negative to just shoot down the idea that simple green will not strip plastic because when I look to my arsenal of things to strip plastic mini's its a thin load out, but simple green is for sure in there. If you want a perfectly clean model I suggest you get new ones, but if you can't, then hit them with simple green to AT LEAST get some of the paint off.

I agree that simple green does a shitty job, but it will take off some paint and it will leave your plastic in tact. That's about all you can hope for with plastics.

If you're stripping metal you might as well just reach for the broadsword of acetone but with plastics you have to compromise with the scaple.

After the near-miraculous results I got with Simple Green on metal minis (which are doubly impressive considering the less-toxic nature of the stuff), I was sorely disappointed with the results I got on plastic.

I can eventually get plastics clean enough to repaint, but it takes several days of soaking and scrubbing whereas with metal it usually only takes a 45 or 60 minute soak and the paint almost seems to lift itself.

Um, I would have to say that it can fairly easily strip plastic minis. I have a dread that I had in Simple Green for 36 hours and it looks fine...at it had been sprayed with Dullcote! Take a look at my blog it's there now. I've used it to strip CSMs and nids as well.

Joe Gekko- Totally. My experience with simple green or anything for that matter is that it takes days of soaking. Luckily my wife loves to pick and groom at things so I just give her a handful of models and a dental tool and she'll pick at them while watching a movie. Maybe OST has special OST formula simplegreen.

Don't trust anything SeerKarandras has to say. He plays eldar and has no idea what he's doing. I mean...eldar...honestly..pffff. :)

And damn, putting plastic models in an oven even at 120 sends a chill up my spin. Though it does sound intriguing....

In the end, I'm curious to the science behind why the same product can strip metal better than plastic? Does plastic have microscopic abrasions that hold the paint better than metal? Different mold release agent used? I'm kind of curious.

CVinton- I have a theory, that the volatile thinners and accelerants in spray primer may fuse the pigment to the plastic. Someday I might get around to testing this by stripping a plastic mini primed in gesso.

I had to strip a Monolith this week. I put it in a tuppaware tub of Simple Green at 170F for 2 hours. Most of the paint falls right off like on the metal models, but there's still some scrubbing involved on the rest. Still saves a lot of time.